Friday, August 23, 2019

This burger joint is better than I'd feared. I had been here once before, and the burger then was a disaster, a grey puck drowned in so much mayonnaise that when I bit down, the wilted lettuce and tomato shot out of the bun and onto my lap. That was just a few days after the place opened, though, and I know that it often takes a week or so for an eatery to find its legs. The burger this time is quite good -- not at a steakhouse level, but better than most fast food. And the other stuff in the bun is in a near-perfect balance. The patio is packed. Right outside the door, four older women with South African accents (I think) are talking and laughing. At the table next to mine, a younger couple quietly eats and smokes. Their cell phone streams soft-rock hits, heavy on the Alan Parsons. A little girl in a floral dress skips back and forth, sometimes trying for distance on each stride, sometimes going for height. As she nears the curb, a soldier, holding a mushroom burger with one hand, reaches back with the other and, without looking, snares the girl before she risks crashing into a turning bus. The girl laughs and runs back to her parents. Her mother calls out "Thank you." The soldier nods and munches on his sweet potato fries.